


Take Me Home

by blakefancier



Series: Young Lovers [11]
Category: Captain America (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-04
Updated: 2011-12-04
Packaged: 2017-10-26 22:06:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/288413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blakefancier/pseuds/blakefancier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Howard is a bit of an ass and Steve goes dancing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Me Home

Jarvis was in a pissy mood. Well, no, that wasn’t quite fair, Howard could admit that.

Howard was in a pissy mood, which he took out on Jarvis. And that was why Jarvis was pissy. That was why, when Jarvis delivered the mail to him that evening, it was on a silver platter. No one could do passive aggressive better than an English butler.

“Thank you, Jarvis,” he said, snatching the mail from the platter. “The silver is looking a little dull.” And no one could do bitchy better than him, except maybe his ex-wife.

“Sir,” Jarvis said coldly, an offended look on his face.

Howard stared at him impassively, until Jarvis took his leave. He didn't give a damn, not in the slightest. It'd been over a month since that blow up with Steve and Tony. Two months since they'd last talked, and every time he thought about it, he felt sick and tense.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. He flipped through the mail: bills, bills, and more bills interspersed with invitations to social events. He tossed them on his desk and poured himself a drink.

He was so fucking tired.

He downed his drink, then rubbed his eyes. Maybe he'd go to bed early tonight. Or maybe he would call Obadiah and they could—His stomach clenched and a twinge of guilt ran through him.

No, no, he didn't suppose they could. Well, Obadiah probably could, but he…

God, he was pathetic.

Howard sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He got up; maybe a few hours in the workshop would soothe his nerves. Just then, the door to his den opened, and Peggy walked in with an armload of paperwork.

"Jarvis said I could come right in." She strolled over to the desk and set the papers on his desk.

"Um… hello." He tried not to sound too confused, but failed miserably. "We have a meeting tonight?"

Peggy gave him an exasperated look. "Yes, Howard, we do. We're supposed to go over security for the Stark Expo this summer."

"That was today?" Howard flopped back onto his chair and sighed.

"Yes, that was today. And if you hadn't fired your secretary—what was it for this time? Eating too loudly, was it?—she would have reminded you." She sat down, primly, and arched her eyebrow. He wasn’t fooled in the slightest. Howard once saw her sucker punch a guy twice her size because he'd called her a bitch.

"I've been busy—" he started.

"No, you've been pining.”

"Wha—I have *not* been pining."

She smiled and crossed her arms over her chest. "Like a thirteen year old."

He sputtered at that.

"You should just call him, Howard. Tell him you're sorry for being a jackass."

"*I'm* being a jackass?" His eyes widened. "I’m not the one who—"

"Good lord, Howard! He’s sixteen! You're a forty-five year old man, you can't—"

"Forty-one! I'm forty-*one.*"

Peggy made a dismissive gesture. "You told me that he apologized. That he stood in front of you, looked into your eyes, and apologized."

"So?"

"Well, when was the last time you apologized to someone, Howard? And I don't mean throwing money at the mistake."

He shook his head and looked away.

"Just talk to him. Let him explain himself. This is Steve we're talking about, Howard. He doesn't have a cruel or malicious bone in his body. "

"I don't…" Howard cleared his throat "I don't know how to… Those men, I… I kissed them. What if…" What if Steve was as cruel to him, as he was to Steve?

"Oh, Howard. " Peggy leaned forward and touched his arm.

"Look, let's just… let's just talk about the security details for the Expo, all right?"

"All right," she said, softly.

*****

Howard didn't call Steve or drop by his apartment. He didn't do anything because… because he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

*****

Howard was in his workshop, up his elbows in a prototype for a new energy source, when Jarvis came into the room looking… well, Jarvis’s bowtie was askew, so that didn’t bode well.

“What’s going on, Jarvis?” He began to slowly free his hands from the machine.

“Sir, Mrs. Rogers is upstairs. She is in some distress.”

“Why—Oh, my God, Steve!” Screw the prototype; he pulled his hands out and made a mad dash for the stairs. He didn’t stop running until he got to the living room. Sarah was standing in the middle of the room, hugging herself. Howard swallowed hard and tried to get his breathing under control. “Sarah? Steve, what—Is he alright?”

Sarah’s eyes filled with tears. “Steve’s missing. I hoped he’d be here but... but he’s not.”

Howard shook his head. “Missing? What are you talking about? What do you mean, missing?”

“He ran away.” She sat, heavily, on the couch, and looked up at him. “Steve ran away from home.”

“Ran away?” Howard sat next to her. “Sarah, you’re not making any sense. Why would Steve run away? What…” He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. “Start from the beginning.”

Sarah closed her eyes and, visibly, pulled herself together. Then she opened her eyes. “I got a call from Steve’s school today. He was in a fight.”

“A fight,” he said, startled, then pressed his lips together. “Sorry, go on.”

“He punched a boy in the face and when the vice principal showed up, instead of following her to her office, he left the school grounds.”

“Why…” He rubbed his face; that didn’t sound like Steve at all.

“Someone wrote a…. a slur on Steve’s locker. I talked with his friend Arnie and the boy Steve hit is the leader of a group of bullies.”

“He was bullied? Why didn’t he *say* anything?”

“Perhaps he was ashamed, sir.” Jarvis said from the doorway. “A few weeks ago, Steven came to the mansion for help. Someone had written a derogatory word on his jacket. He asked for my help in removing the word.”

“You knew?” Sarah stood up, her face going red with anger. “You knew and you didn’t say anything?”

“He assured me that he would tell you, Mrs. Rogers. I had no reason to disbelieve him.” Jarvis swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, I should have said something.”

“No.” Sarah shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, Mr. Jarvis. I… I’m just upset.”

“Look, this isn’t helping. We could spend all night beating ourselves up about this, but it won’t help us find Steve.”

"Right.” Sarah took a deep breath. “I’ve called the police and they took a report, but they… they say that there are so many runaways…”

Of course they did. “Well, why don’t I make a few phone calls? The police commissioner owes me a few favors. What do Steve’s friends say?”

“They haven’t seen him and he’s not at any of his usual haunts.” She hesitated. “I haven’t been able to get a hold of Tony.”

Howard cursed long and loud. Then he took out his phone and punched in Tony’s number. It went straight to voice mail. “Anthony Edward Stark, if you’ve been avoiding Sarah’s phone calls because Steve is there, I’m going to pull your ass out of MIT and make you re-attend high school. At a public school! Call me when you get this message!”

“I should head home, just in case.”

“Jarvis, why don’t you drive her home?” He looked at her. “We’re going to find him, Sarah, safe and sound.”

She nodded and gave him a sad smile.

“I’ll contact the commissioner, see if he can’t dedicate a few men to look for Steve. And I’ll call my head of security, Peggy Carter, and have her start searching, too.”

“What about you?” Sarah got to her feet and sniffled.

“I think I’m going to take a drive to Cambridge, see why Tony isn’t answering his phone.”

“Do you think Steve’s there?”

Howard shrugged. “I think that if I tried to help look for him, I’d be more of a hindrance than a help. But, if I don’t do something, I’ll go crazy.”

“Thank you, Howard.”

“Did that hurt to say?” he asked, smiling.

She gave a bark of laughter. “Just a little.”

*****

"Sir," Jarvis said on his way out, "don't forget the gift sitting on your desk."

*****

Howard was ninety-nine point three percent sure that Steve was at MIT with Tony. He didn't tell Sarah that because, well, because he was a bad person and he wanted to talk to Steve first.

Of course, he didn't get confirmation of that until he was a half an hour from Cambridge. His cellphone buzzed; he glanced at the screen, and then hit the hands-free button.

“Tony?” Howard said with relief. “I’ve been trying to get hold of you for hours. Steve—“

“I know,” Tony replied; the background noise was so loud, Howard could barely hear him. “He’s here. Dad, he’s here. And he’s not okay.”

His stomach dropped with fear. "Not—Where are you?"

He had to ask Tony to repeat himself. Twice.

*****

God, he was too old for this shit. Not that he had ever been much for going to clubs. Give him a nice quiet workroom any day. Still the go-go boys were a nice touch, even if he thought the porn being shown on the tv screens, which were everywhere, were in bad taste.

Howard started when he felt a hand on his arm, but it was only Tony, who looked relieved.

"What took you so long?" Tony asked, gripping the sleeve of Howard's jacket.  
"I got lost. " Howard looked around the club. "Where—" The words died on his lips as he saw Steve, stripped to the waist, dry humping some guy who looked old enough—Okay, okay, so he didn't have any right to be angry, but he was. He was angry and wanted desperately to deck the guy putting his hands on Steve.

He jerked out of Tony's grasp, took off his jacket and strode through the crowd, pulling the guy off of Steve.

"Howard," Steve yelled and flung himself into Howard's arms. "What are you doing here?"

Howard wrapped his jacket around Steve's shoulders while trying to fend off Steve's wandering hands. All they needed was some idiot with a camera phone to take a picture of them. "You're drunk!"

"Nope. Oh, I love this song. Dance with me!" Steve rubbed up against him and… no, just no. Howard wasn't going to do that, no matter how good it felt.

He gently pushed Steve away and turned to Tony, who was standing at Howard's side. He shoved his keys into Tony's hands. "Wait for us in the car. And call Jarvis while you're at it. Have him book us a room at a hotel. He'll know which one. And call Sarah!"

Tony took the keys and nodded before slipping through the crowd.

Steve slid his hands around and grabbed Howard's ass.

Howard jerked and yelped. Goddamn it! "Stop! I mean it!"

Steve pouted and Howard wanted to pull him into a hug. He didn't, but it was a near thing. Instead, he put his arm around Steve's shoulders and led him out of the club to the parking lot.

Tony was leaning up against the car, making eyes at a girl walking past him. Howard sighed and rolled his eyes.

"He gave me crabs," Steve called out to the girl, whose eyes widened with surprise and quickly hurried past.

Tony glared at Steve. "That was totally fucked up."

"Bros before hos, Tone," Steve said then began giggling.

Tony laughed. "Now I know you're drunk. You'd never say something so appallingly sexist when you're sober."

That just made Steve laugh even harder.

Howard sighed; how was this his life? "Get in the car, Tony," he said, then opened the back passenger side door, and helped Steve in.

When he finally got into the car, Tony turned to him. "Sarah said to call her when you get a free minute. Oh and Jarvis said he'd make the reservation for you."

"Good. Do you want me to drive you back to campus?"

"Dunno, Dad. Do you really think it's a good idea to check into a hotel room, alone, with a drunk sixteen year old kid who's not your son?"

"Fuck! Why is this my life?" He turned the ignition and pulled out.

"Clean living?" Tony smirked at him

Howard was an adult, so he didn't tell Tony to fuck off.

*****

Somehow, they managed to get up to their hotel room without any more groping incidents. As a matter of fact, both boys were unusually quiet the whole way to the hotel.

"I'm taking a shower," Tony said, as they entered the room. "God, I smell like cheap cologne."

Steve watched as Tony entered the bedroom of their suite, then he took of Howard's jacket and tossed it on a chair.

Howard let the tension ease from his body, then he dropped onto the couch, stretching his legs out. He closed his eyes; he was exhausted. His eyes flew open, as Steve straddled his thighs.

"Hi." Steve looked at him with a smile that he couldn’t help returning.

"Hi." He rested his hands on Steve's hips.

"I'm sorry I caused so much trouble." Steve leaned in and pressed a kiss to the corner of Howard's mouth.

"Let's not worry about that now," he said, rubbing his thumbs against Steve's hips and fighting the urge to slide his hands up and touch that smooth, damp skin.

"Okay." Steve kissed him again, soft and slow and full of promise.

Howard bit back a groan and turned his head. "Stop."

"Why?" Steve slid his hands up Howard's torso.

"Because you're drunk." He grabbed Steve's wrist.

"I'm not drunk."

"You smell drunk. Now get up. Come on." He urged Steve to his feet. "Drink some water and go to bed. We'll talk in the morning."

"Promise?" Steve's voice broke and Howard just wanted to pull him close. But that way laid madness.

"I promise. Now, off to bed." He made a shooing motion with his hand and, when Steve finally disappeared into the bedroom, contemplated calling Sarah. No, no, he'd do it in a bit, after his erection went down.

Of course, he wasn't alone for very long. Ten minutes later, Tony came into the living area and flopped onto the couch next to him.

"Thanks for calling me," Howard said.

Tony shrugged. "Steve's my friend and he needs help."

"Yeah." Howard sighed, then he looked over at Tony. "Happy belated birthday, by the way."

"Thanks." Tony leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling.

"I brought you a birthday present." He leaned over and snagged his jacket from the chair and pulled out the small box. "Here you go."

Tony sat up straight, and with a grin, ripped open the present Jarvis had so exquisitely wrapped. "Oh, a… pocket watch."

Howard laughed, because that was the same reaction he had when he was seventeen. "Yeah, yeah, it is. It's been in our family for over a hundred years. My father gave to me on my seventeenth birthday; his father had done the same, so on. Someday, maybe you'll give it to your eldest son. Or daughter."

Tony rubbed his thumb against it and smiled. "Cool. Thanks, Dad."

"Don't break it." The smile slipped from Tony's face and, shit, he hadn't meant to say that. "Tony, I—"

"I'm going to bed." Tony quickly got to his feet and stormed out of the room.

Howard ran his fingers through his hair. "Fuck!"

*****

The next morning, Howard woke to the sound of a door being closed very, very loudly. He jerked into wakefulness with a mumbled exclamation and rubbed his eyes.

His nose twitched; he smelled coffee.

Howard blinked the sleepiness from his eyes and sat up. Steve, who was sitting on the chair, offered him a mug.

"Thanks," he said, taking a long pull of the coffee.

"Sure." Steve's voice was quiet and unsure and Howard looked at him over the cup.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine. I told you, I wasn't drunk last night."

Howard snorted and gave Steve another once over. He didn't look too bad and he was wearing a t-shirt with the hotel's name blazoned across the chest. "Where's Tony?"

"He just left. He said he has a class this morning that he can't miss."

Howard nodded and finished his cup of coffee. He sat the mug down on the coffee table in front of him.

"I called my mom this morning," Steve said softly, staring at the floor. "She's really mad."

"Yeah, well, you really worried us yesterday." Howard wished he could be angry, but he was just tired and sore from sleeping on the couch. "You could have come to me, you know."

Steve finally looked up at him. "But I didn't know."

Howard felt a twinge of guilt at that, but he soldiered past it. "What's going on, Steve? Why… why didn’t you say anything to your mom about what was going on at school?"

For a moment, Steve's face crumbled with grief, and he looked away.

"Hey, hey, no!" Howard surged to his feet and took the couple of steps to Steve. He touched Steve's hair. "Please don't cry, babe."

"You don’t know what it's been like, Howard." Steve's voice was thick with tears. "Mom's been mad all the time, she couldn't even talk to me without yelling. And… I've made things so hard for her. All my life, I've made things hard for her: being sick all the time when I was a kid, then… then being with you and hacking into the DOD. And to make things worse, things at work are really bad for her now. I couldn't tell her about the bullying. I just couldn't!"

"Steve, being sick, the bullying, that wasn't your fault!"

"I should have kept my head down, and I didn't!" Steve looked up at him, his eyes filled with tears. "They kept at it, Howard. They just… they wouldn’t leave me alone. And then when I saw that disgusting word on my locker, and they were laughing, I just snapped. I messed everything up. I ruined everything!"

"No." Howard pulled him into a hug. "You didn't ruin *anything.* You're the victim here, pal. And you have nothing to feel bad about. You made some mistakes, I'm not going to deny that. But you're sixteen, Steve, and that's par for the course. When we get home, you, your mom, and me we'll sit down and talk. Will figure out how to fix this, I promise. Even if I have to throw an obscene about of money at it."

Steve gave a choked laugh and rubbed his face against Howard's stomach. "Okay."

Howard gently pulled away and stroked Steve's hair. "And I'm… I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was an asshole to you."

"I hurt you." Steve rubbed his eyes.

"Yeah, well, you didn't mean it." Howard cupped Steve's face and gently stroked along his cheek with a thumb. "I treated you like shit and… and I… I didn't fuck those guys. I didn't fuck any of those guys, but I did kiss them."

"It's okay." Steve flushed red. "I kissed a couple of guys at the club last night. So I guess we're even."

Howard bit back the wave of jealousy that tidbit of information caused. "Let's… let's not keep score. Let's just say that we both learned a lesson."

Steve nodded, then asked, tentatively, "Does this mean we're still together?"

"Yes. I mean, if… if you still want us to be together."

"Yes." Steve scrambled to his feet and hugged Howard tightly. "Oh, yes."

Good," Howard said, his voice rough, and pressed his cheek against Steve's hair. "What do you say we get some breakfast, then head on home? You must be starving."

"I am a little." Steve sighed. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too, babe. So much."

**Author's Note:**

> Is it creepy that Howard is a better dad to Steve than he is to Tony? I think it is.


End file.
